Remember our bond
by osuwariboy
Summary: [one shot] More than two centuries have passed since Kagome died, leaving Inuyasha behind. As he goes to visit her tomb, Inuyasha remembers their life together and how harsh fate was to them and the ones he cared about.


**Disclaimer:** The usual, Inuyasha and his gang are not my property  
**Note:** This story is like a sort of sister story to "Remember the past", another of my tear jerking work. The main idea for that last one was "What if Inuyasha died, leaving Kagome to live the rest of her life alone?". In this one however, the basic idea is "What if Kagome died, leaving Inuyasha to live the rest of his life alone?". For those select few who actually read the other story, you may find some elements that are similar. I did it on purpose, because I wanted this story to be the sister of the other, even the title is almost the same he he. In any case, I strongly recommend that you arm yourself with a good box of handkerchiefs as I'm pretty sure you're going to need it. And without further ado... on with the story.

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Remember our bond**

Leaves crunched under the bare feet of the hanyou as he made his way through the forest. A gentle breeze stirred the branches of the trees around him gently and made his long silver hair move a little. The birds sang happily, the sun shone overhead. All in all, it was the very picture of paradise. A picture that would have made _her_ smile.

_"Kagome..."_ thought Inuyasha longingly, his ear drooping slightly as he remembered the girl who had captured his heart so long ago.

And long ago it had been indeed. 243 years to be exact. He prided himself in keeping the count, partly because it prevented himself from forgetting her (not that this was likely to ever happen) but mostly because the more the years passed, the closer he became to being reunited with her. As he came on top of a small hill, his destination came into view.

There, at the base of the goshinboku, a small wooden cross rose from the ground, a modest testimony to the woman who rested there. Tears filled his eyes as they always did when he came to this place and he didn't stop them, he didn't want to stop them. That was one of the things that had changed in 200 years. His ego had dropped considerably and he didn't bother to hide his emotions anymore. Physically, it was mostly his face that had changed, adding wrinkles and weariness to his traits.

Reaching his destination, he pulled out his most treasured possession: A small heart-shaped locket that he always wore around his neck. In it was a picture of him and Kagome, both smiling brightly. A small grin appeared on his face as he remembered the first pictures this small piece of jewelry had contained. His good mood didn't last long however and his suffering came back with a vengance, making his heart constrict painfully in his chest.

He closed his eyes then and stopped suppressing his pain, allowing his buried memories to come back to the surface and overwhelm him. He always did that when he came here, it was the only thing he could do really, because there wasn't much he could say to her that she didn't already know.

--Flashback--

_"So you're leaving?" asked the hanyou, ears drooping slightly, signaling to the world that he was feeling rather pained by that fact._

_"Don't worry Inuyasha, I won't be gone for long," smiled the schoolgirl gently. "And besides, this is my very last exam, after that I can stay for as long as I want without needing to go back. So please be patient, I'll be back tomorrow, I promise," she finished._

_Leaning closer to him, she deposited a small and gentle kiss on his cheek before turning away with the intention of jumping down the well. She didn't get very far before the hanyou grabbed her by the hand and pulled her back to him. He wrapped his arms around her and firmly placed his lips on hers in a fierce and passionate kiss. She started by stiffening in surprise at the sudden action, but it didn't last and she slowly melted against him, answering his passion in kind._

_When they finally broke apart, the schoolgirl had to lean on him for support as her knees weren't quite functioning properly. Still, her eyes were bright with happiness and love as she looked up at him._

_"Inuyasha, I..." she started, but he silenced her with a gentle finger on her lips._

_"Kagome, just answer me this. When you come back from this exam of yours... will you do me the honor of being my mate?" he asked her._

_He saw her eyes widen in astonishement. At least he hoped it was astonishement. He may not show it, but he was so nervous that his heart was currently trying to leap out of his chest. And then, tears started to roll down her cheeks and her lips began to tremble slightly._

_"Inuyasha..." she whispered in a shaky voice._

_This was definitively not a good sign and the hanyou could feel his world slowly crumble beneath him at the realization that the woman he loved did not want to be his wife, did not want to be associated with a half-breed like him. But then, as it turned out, he was wrong because the schoolgirl suddenly threw herself against him and started sobbing wildly._

_"Yes Inuyasha, I'll be your wife, your mate, I'll be whatever you want me to be, just as long as I'm with you," she said, her voice muffled by the folds of his haori._

_He smiled then as relief washed over him. "Being my mate is enough Kagome, that alone will make me more than happy," he finished, holding her tenderly in his arms._

--End flashback--

"This was our beginning," murmured the hanyou with a nostalgic smile on his face. "I can still remember you on the eve of our wedding day, you practically glowed with happiness."

"But it didn't take long for reality to crash back on us did it?" he asked, feeling a lump form in his throat.

--Flashback--

_The couple slowly walked through the village, steadily ignoring the looks filled with pity they were receiving. Instead, they focused solely on their connecting hands._

_"Sango and Miroku should arrive sometime tomorrow," said Kagome cheerfully._

_"Yeah, I still have a hard time believing that those two are actually married," chuckled the hanyou. "Well, at least he can grope her legally now," he added, causing the two to burst out laughing._

_"From what I heard, he did more than that," Kagome shot back. "In fact, if I'm correct, Sango's expecting her second born in a few months."_

_"That's great news I suppose," said Inuyasha, his face becoming serious once again._

_The two fell silent then, both suddenly painfully aware of what they were lacking. Both painfully aware than in their three years of marriage, they had yet to produce a single offspring. It hurts... a lot as it became more and more apparent that one of them was incapable of reproducing._

_"I so sorry Inuyasha," whispered the girl beside him suddenly._

_"Sorry?" he asked, not understanding why she was saying this all of a sudden._

_"Sorry because... we don't have a child yet," she answered, her voice cracking as tears started flowing down her cheeks._

_"It's okay Kagome," he whispered as he wrapped her in a comforting embrace. "We've been through too much together to give up at that," he whispered. "We'll find a way, I promise."_

--End flashback--

"But we didn't did we Kagome? We never did find a way to have children," said the hanyou painfully.

"You never said a thing, but I know you were suffering because of it. You wanted so much to give me a loving family that it killed you that you had been unable to do so," he whispered painfully.

"But the ultimate irony Kagome is that it wasn't your fault... but mine," he said, a humorless smile appearing on his face.

"It took me a long time to find out about it, but I discovered that every hanyou are sterile, unable to reproduce," he whispered. "So you can at least rest in peace on this one."

"And after that, things only went downhill for us did they Kagome? As the months passed, the looks we received from the villagers grew increasingly more hostile until it turned into downward hatred," he added bitterly.

--Flashback--

_"What do you mean you're not selling?" asked Kagome frustratedly._

_"Like I said, my fishes are not for the likes of you," spat the merchant angrily._

_The girl hissed in frustration before walking away, empty handed. Things like this had been growing increasingly more frequent. As it became obvious that she and Inuyasha were unable to have children, she had received a few discreet suggestions that she might try to move on, to find a new husband. This had enraged her to no end for two reasons. The first was that she loved Inuyasha with all her heart and she wasn't about to let him down, especially not now. And the second reason was that this kind of suggestion was normally made to men, not woman. And that told her just how high they actually thought of the hanyou._

_She turned every one who suggested it down with a vehemance so great that it prevented them from ever suggesting it again. Of course, it had not stood well with the villagers who, in their eyes, were trying to help her. And so, rumors started spreading about her, wild rumors about her being cursed, her being a witch of some sort or even worst, a demon. None held any truth to it, but of course, the stupid villagers believed them. Friendly faces suddenly turned fearful, if not openly hostile. People tried to avoid having any direct contact with her because they didn't want to contract her curse._

_"Such stupidity," she muttered as she stalked through the market._

_Her angry walk was brought to an abrupt stop when she accidently bumped into someone. The collision caused her to lose her balance and fall backward on the ground._

_"I'm sorry," she mumbled, a little dizzy from her fall._

_Apparently, a simple apology was not enough for whoever she had accidently hit as the guy suddenly grabbed her by the hair and pulled her roughly to her feet. "That wasn't very nice bitch!" spat the man angrily._

_"I said I was sorry!" she exclaimed through clenched teeth._

_"Sorry? You're _sorry!_," he repeated incredulously._

_"Listen bitch you just soiled my favorite kimono with your curse. Now I'm going to have to buy a new one and even then, your stench is not going to go away. So 'sorry' doesn't quite cut it," he whispered menacingly_

_"And what do you want me to do about it," she questioned back, feeling anger rise within her._

_"That's easy, since I'm already soiled by your curse, I figure I might as well go all the way," he whispered with a suggestive smile._

_"You realize of course that if you do that, my husband is very likely to kill you. And considering the circumstances, I don't think I would even try to stop him," she answered calmly, with a menace of her own._

_"That filthy hanyou? He can come, I'm not afraid of him," laughed the man._

_"I do think you should," said the girl with an icy smile._

_"Oh? And give me one good reason why I should be afraid," he dared._

_"I'll do even better than that, I'll give you two. The first, he's a hanyou and as such, is a LOT stronger than you could ever hope to be," she began, her smile never leaving her face._

_"And what about the second, bitch?" he asked completely focused on the girl in front of him, not realizing that people all around them had started to move away in fear._

_"The said _husband_ is standing right behind you," Inuyasha answered his voice trembling with barely contained rage._

_A whopping three punches and one good shove later, Inuyasha was standing over the crumpled and moaning form of the thug. Bending down, he grabbed the man by the collar and hoisted him at eye level. "Next time you even dare to touch my wife, I won't be so forgiving," he whispered menacingly before letting him drop unceremoniously to the ground._

_"Let's get out of here Kagome," he said disdainfully before grabbing her arm and dragging her out of the marketplace._

_"I'm sorry I couldn't get any fish Inuyasha," apologized the woman when they were safely out of town._

_"We don't need their filthy fishes Kagome. We'll get them ourselves the old fashioned way," he answered her with a reassuring smile._

--End flashback--

"That guy was really pathetic wasn't he Kagome," laughed the hanyou as he remembered how easily he had beaten up that moron.

"But that marked the beginning of our exile. The villagers simply didn't want to see us anymore. They began to throw rocks at you if you even dared to get too close to them," he whispered sadly.

"But you put up with it... for my sake, you put up with all of it," he choked, fresh tears streaming down his cheeks.

"If it had only stopped there it would have been okay. But pretty soon, they all started picking on Sango and Miroku's family. And so, in order to protect what was most important to them... they had to sever all the connection they had with us," he whispered, hands clenched in pain and frustration.

"You cried then, you cried so much that I thought you would never stop. And come to think of it... you never really did did you?. On that day... you lost a part of yourself and you never quite recovered from it," he continued in the same forced tone of voice.

"But I the worst blow was yet to come wasn't it?" he asked the air around him.

--Flashback--

_Kagome hummed lightly as she stirred the stew she was preparing for dinner. Shippo and Inuyasha would be coming home any minute now and, knowing them, they would both be starving. Thinking of her little kitsune (well not so little now that he was twenty), she sighed sadly. Any day now she was expecting him to say he was leaving. He had started courting Soten a few months back and from what she could gather, things were going quite well indeed._

_It was a moment she dreaded, especially now that Sango and Miroku had moved away from her and Inuyasha. They still wrote occasionally, but the letters were few and far in between. And letters could not possibly hope to compare to a presence. She longed to see her friends again, to laugh with them and hug them, but it was impossible. If it became known that she was associated with them, they would become outcasts and she didn't want this to happen, not to them._

_"Mom, I'm home," came Shippo's voice from the entrance, jarring her out of her musing._

_"Welcome home Shippo, dinner's almost ready," she greeted as cheerfully as she could._

_True to her word, a few minutes later, she emerged from the kitchen, balancing a tray in her hands. She put it carefully in front of the kitsune and sat down herself._

_"Inuyasha isn't with you?" she asked curiously._

_"Well... we met a youkai on our way back and he accidently got 'splashed' by the remains. He's cleaning up right now," answered the kitsune, chuckling at the memory._

_"I see," answered the woman, unable to keep from smiling at the amount of curses her mate must have uttered when it happened._

_"And how are things with Soten? Well I expect?" asked the woman, carefully trying to keep the pain she felt at bringing up the topic._

_"Better than well, she accepted my proposal!" he exclaimed, eyes shining with happiness. "Can you believe it mom? We're going to get married!" he shot again, unable to keep the excitement from his voice._

_"That's great Shippo, really... great," she answered, trying desperately to sound cheerful, but failing miserably._

_"Mom... what's the matter? Aren't you happy about this?" asked the kitsune in confusion._

_"I am Shippo... I really am. But sometimes... I wish you could have stayed my little kitsune all your life," she confessed, tears streaming down her cheeks._

_"Oh mom," he whispered, wrapping her in his arms in a comforting embrace. "I will always be your little kitsune, no matter where I am, no matter how old I am," he murmured reassuringly._

_"Thank you Shippo," whispered Kagome after a few minutes of silent crying._

_"And besides, I'll visit as often as I can, I promise. And when I have children, I'll bring them here, so they get to know just how great a grandmother you can be," he added with a cheery smile._

_"Yes Shippo, that would be great... and I'm sure Inuyasha would be pleased with it too," answered the woman wiping her wet cheeks with her hands._

_"Pleased with what?" asked the said hanyou gruffly as he pushed open the door and made his entrance._

_His hair and haori were both still dripping wet from his recent bath. Apparently, he had not bothered with taking off his clothing, he had jumped straight into the river in order to get rid of all the blood and gore that had stuck to him._

_"Don't move Inuyasha, I'll get you some dry clothing," said Kagome as she shot to her feet and went to their room._

_She came back a few minutes later with a clean kimono and a towel. The hanyou roughly grabbed the cloth from her hands and dropped on all four. Kagome's eyes widened as she realized what he was about to do._

_"No Inuyasha, don't..." she warned, but it was too late. Inuyasha started vigorously shaking the water off of himself, looking every bit like the dog he partly was._

_When he got back to his feet, he instantly realized his mistake when he saw Kagome dripping wet in front of him. "Inuyasha... how many times did I tell you to do this sort of stuff _outside_?" she asked, her voice low and menacing._

_"Hum... 5433 times at least," he answered sheepishly._

_"Well then, make that 5434 times," said the woman, throwing him the towel he had failed to take._

_"By the way Kagome... what was it I was supposed to be pleased about?" he asked, trying to get himself out of jam he was currently in._

_With relief, he saw the anger fade from the woman's brown eyes, replaced with a dreamy expression. "Well you see, Shippo's getting married soon and he was saying that he would bring his children here as often as he could," she said._

_"Children heh?" he repeated, as if tasting the word on his mouth. He gave a sudden start as something crossed his mind. "Wouldn't that make us... grandparents?" he asked suddenly._

_"I do believe it would Inuyasha... I do believe it would," said Kagome softly, her dreamy expression never leaving her face._

--End flashback--

"And then, it was just you and I Kagome. You, me and a house too big and empty to contain the both of us," sighed the hanyou sadly.

"Sure Shippo kept his word and he did come often. But it was far from being enough, even when he brought his children with him," he said again, pain gripping his chest.

"Day after day, I saw the fire in your eyes grow dimmer and dimmer until I couldn't stand it any longer and I did the only logical thing, I tried to let you go," he continued.

"I tried everything. I tried to push you away, I tried to become a total jerk, I tried insulting you, I even tried to give you back your ring. But you read me like a book and if anything, my attempts caused you to fall more in love with me than before," he finished with a hunch of his shoulders.

"Finally... my worst nightmare came true: you fell sick. A terrible disease that never missed its target. I was so lost back then, you wouldn't imagine," he whispered.

--Flashback--

_A terrible cough wracked Kagome's body, leaving her struggling for breath. Small specks of blood stained the handkerchief she had used to shield her mouth. Beside her, Inuyasha was sitting, ears drooped and eyes filled with a pain and worry she had never seen before._

_"Don't worry Inuyasha, I'll be fine, I promise," murmured the elderly woman softly._

_"Kagome... please tell me what to do... I... I..." he trailed off, his voice failing him under the weight of his emotion._

_"Just stay with me Inuyasha, that's all I want... that's all I ever wanted," she whispered and gently took hold of his shaking hand._

_"Do you remember Inuyasha... twenty years ago, when we were all together and chasing after Naraku so many things happened back then and yet I can't help but be fond of those memories," she said softly, her eyes closing under the intense pain her disease was causing her to endure._

_"I remember Kagome... I remember. But now you need to sleep okay? I'll be with you in a few minutes. Just rest and relax," he spoke soothingly._

_The girl merely nodded before her breathing evened and sleep claimed her tired body. The hanyou waited a few more minutes before standing up and exiting the room. "I remember Kagome... I remember how _forty_ years ago we were all together and chasing Naraku," he corrected sadly._

_When he reached the common room, he collapsed on the ground. Never in his life had he been so lost as to what to do. There was simply nothing he could do but watch his wife die. How could you possibly expect anyone to survive to that? Weren't they supposed to be happy, have a family or something? Why was fate so cruel? Why had they been deprived of everything a normal couple would have?_

_It was all so frustrating. She was going to die here all alone, with only him by his side. If only Shippo was here, he could..._

_"Inuyasha!" a voice snapped right in his ear, making him jump at least a foot in the air._

_"Shippo! When did you..." he exclaimed, surprised that he had not heard him come in._

_"A few minutes ago, the door was open," explained the kitsune._

_Completely disregarding that last statement, Inuyasha started talking with sudden urgency. "Shippo listen to me it's really important," he began and instantly he could see the youkai's attention focus on him._

_"Kagome's sick and I'm afraid that... she doesn't have long to live," he continued and then, seeing that Shippo was about to say something, he raised his hand to silence him._

_"So I want you to go and find Miroku and Sango, Soten and your kids. I want you to find everyone alive who ever gave a damn about Kagome... and bring them here," he finished, his tone intent and urgent._

_"Please Shippo, don't let Kagome die all alone here. Let her die among people who still love her," he begged when he saw the lack of understanding in the kitsune's eyes._

_"Inuyasha..." he murmured, touched by the display he had just witnessed. Never in his life had he seen the hanyou so incredibly desperate and he felt his resolve harden at this._

_"Don't worry Inuyasha, even if I have to drag them here by the scruff of their neck, they'll come, I swear it," he promised._

_"Just make sure Kagome doesn't die before I return," he said while turning around and exiting the house._

_Thus had begun an excruciating race against time. Inuyasha trusted Shippo with his life and he knew that the kitsune wouldn't get any rest as long as he had not brought back the promised people. For his part, all he could do was take care of Kagome to the best of his abilities, which were very limited. Finally, on the eve of the third day, Soten arrived._

_"Thank god, I thought you would never get here," exclaimed the hanyou, relief evident on his features._

_"We came as fast as we could, how is Kagome?" asked the female youkai._

_"Not good I'm afraid, she's so weak now that she can hardly eat by herself," he said painfully._

_"Is grandma going to be okay?" asked one of the kids._

_Inuyasha merely closed his eyes and lowered his head in pain, not daring to answer._

_"She's going to be okay isn't she?" asked the kid again, his tone growing more insistent._

_"She will... If we're all with her, she will," answered Soten softly before hushering her family toward Kagome's room._

_To say the sick woman had been happy at seeing her grandchildren would have been an understatement. She was positively extactic and her eyes shone with happiness at seeing them all here. Inuyasha stayed a little in the background as she was reunited with those she loved so much. At one point, their gaze met and he didn't miss the thankful gleam that sparkled in her eyes. She knew that he had done it and she was grateful for it. Now if only Sango and Miroku could get there in time._

_The next two days passed relatively pleasantly and Kagome even managed to recover some of her strength. Inuyasha was glad to see her smile again, it was comforting to know that she would not die alone. It was at noon on the fifth day that the door suddenly burst open to admit an elderly couple followed closely by a very tired-looking Shippo. Immediately, the woman stalked to him and looked at him straight in the eyes._

_"Where is she, where is Kagome?" demanded the woman._

_The face was warped with age, anger and a pain deeper than he had ever seen, her traits were changed beyond recognition, but no one in this world could possibly have such an intense and penetrating look as..._

_"Sango?" asked Inuyasha, a bit surprised by the outburst._

_"Who else would I be? Now answer the damn question," she demanded impatiently._

_"The room down the hall," he pointed nervously._

_"I apologize for this Inuyasha," Miroku cut in once the woman had gone. "But you see, neither she nor I could ever forgive ourselves for abandoning Kagome all those years ago. For Sango however, it has been a living hell. There was not a single minute in all those years that she did not think about coming back here and apologize. So now I believe that she regrets not working up the courage to do it sooner," finished the monk sadly._

_"I'm not the one you should be telling this to Miroku," shot the hanyou sharply._

_"When you abandoned us, it hurt her more than you could ever imagine and for that, I will never forgive you. But right now, Kagome's dying and I want her to be able to say goodbye to the people she cares about the most, because yes monk, she still cares about you all, even after what you did," he finished before whirling around briskly and heading for the kitchen._

_"I give you my word Inuyasha, we're going to make these last few days... memorable," promised the monk solemnly._

_As it turned out, it was a week later that Kagome's strength finally gave way. As she lay in bed, looking at all the people she knew so well and loved however, she couldn't help but feel happy and, despite all that had happened, lucky to have met them all._

_"Everyone... we all made a lot of mistakes in this life. Mistakes that lead us apart from each other," she whispered. "But in the end, we're all together once again so..." she coughed violently before continuing. "I want to believe that there is still hope for all of us, hope that the next time we meet... things will be different," she finished weakly._

_"Kagome..." whispered the hanyou with teary eyes._

_"Inuyasha... promise me... that you won't forget about me?" she pleaded._

_"Never Kagome, I'll never forget you for as long as I live," he swore._

_"I love you... Inuyasha, I... always have... and I... always will," she finally managed to say before going completely limp._

--End flashback--

"And so that's how it all ended," said the hanyou, feeling completely numb inside. "We buried you here the very same day and that was the end of our life together... and the beginning of my eternal loneliness."

"I tried to stay in our house for a while, but it proved to be too much for me to bear, too many memories were haunting me so I left. I moved in with Shippo and Soten," he recited to the empty air.

"But even with them... it's still hard to live without you Kagome. Not a day goes by without me dreaming of having you in my arms," he confessed.

_"The same goes for me Inuyasha,"_ whispered a voice he knew all too well.

His head snapped up in shock and he couldn't help but stare at the apparition before him. She was wearing the same green and white uniform she had on when he had first laid eyes on her. The same brown eyes, the same black hair that cascaded on her shoulder. Everything about her was exactly as he remembered.

"Kagome..." he said, his voice breaking under amount of emotions coursing through him at that very moment.

And then he couldn't restrain himself any longer. He threw himself at her and wrapped her in his arms tightly, claiming her lips no, devouring her lips, with a ferocity that could only be born from two centuries of longing. To his surprise, she answered him with a passion at least equal to his own, which was quite something in itself. After a blissful eternity, both broke off the embrace to gaze in each other's eyes lovingly.

"It's over Inuyasha," said Kagome gently. "We're finally back together and nothing is ever going to separate us again," she whispered, burying her face in the folds of his haori.

"Nothing," he agreed softly, inhaling deeply, taking in her rich scent, something he hadn't been able to do in centuries, something he had longed to do for centuries.

But then he stiffened slightly as a thought occurred to him. "Kagome, you're... dead right?" he asked a bit fearfully.

An understanding look passed over the girl's face as she answered. "Yes Inuyasha, I am."

"Does this means that..." he trailed off, unable to finish voicing his thought.

"Look," Kagome pointed to a spot right behind him.

Turning around, his eyes fell on... him. Or rather his body. It was sitting against the goshinboku with a peaceful expression on his face, one similar to Kagome's when she had died centuries before. "It's... a bit strange," he said, shivering slightly in discomfort.

"Don't worry, you'll get used to it after a time," spoke the girl beside him reassuringly.

"So what now?" asked the hanyou after a few seconds of contemplative silence.

"Now Inuyasha... we start anew," she answered before wrapping her arms around him once again.

--Epilogue--

It was hours later and long after the souls of Kagome and Inuyasha had ascended into the heavens that the tranquility of the clearing was once again troubled by another living soul. The newcomer had small pointed ears, green eyes and a tail that proclaimed him a kitsune youkai.

"You know Inuyasha, you could have told us where you were going, it would have spared everyone a whole lot of trouble," admonished Shippo sternly when his eyes fell on the form sitting against the tree.

No answer.

Frowning, he started to move closer to the hanyou. It wasn't like him at all to ignore a taunt like this. "What's the matter? Cat got your..." but he never finished his statement because the breeze brought him a scent that could not be mistaken for anything else: death.

His eyes widened in surprise and he instantly broke into a run. It didn't take him long to cover the distance separating him from Inuyasha's prone form, but when he did reach him, he knew instantly that his nose had not betrayed him. The hanyou was sitting there, his head bent over slightly to rest on his chest. A small heart-shaped locket was still nestled in the crook of his limp hand and it was open, revealing the smiling faces of Kagome and Inuyasha. But what really captured Shippo's attention was the expression on the hanyou's face. It was one he hadn't seen on Inuyasha in centuries: peace... pure and simple peace. The kitsune smiled then, he smiled because he knew that there was only one person who could ever produce such an effect on Inuyasha.

"I'm glad that you were there Kagome. At least... he wasn't all alone when he passed away," he said to the empty air.

"I wish I could have been there... but you know how he is, he never tells anyone anything," he continued with a watery smile.

"But I think it was better this way... you two probably had a lot of catching up to do," he said again, tears falling freely down his face now.

"God, I'm starting to sound like Miroku," he chuckled sadly. "By the way, did that letch ever managed to join you all? He wasn't the most virtuous of men if I remember correctly."

"And Sango's there too right? She has to, she's the only one capable of controlling Miroku's wandering hand. Without her, he's going to be kicked right out of heaven," he finished, still smiling, but not laughing anymore.

"You're all together right?" he asked, suddenly uncertain. "Just like old times, when we were chasing the jewel shards. Before we..." he trailed off, unable to finish.

"Please, I don't want to find our group... our family broken again when I do join you. Our bond is stronger than that, I know it in my heart. So wait for me okay? Wait for me so that we can all give our family a second try," he pleaded, desperately hoping that his feelings would reach his loved ones.

The wind picked up then, gently caressing his face the way a mother would do to the face of her child. Into that gentle breeze, the kitsune was able to pick out a small murmur, a promise spoken from the world beyond. _"We'll be waiting Shippo... all of us," _and he smiled, knowing that one day, they would all be together again.

* * *

**Author's note:** Whooey, I'm all out of tears once again. God, I had forgotten how incredibly fun writing a sad story can be (don't try to find the logic in that, there isn't any he he he). In any case, I hope you liked it and as always... read and review ;)  



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